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July 2, 2008

G87: Rays 7, Red Sox 6

Manny Delcarmen and Craig Hansen each faced three batters in the seventh -- and retired no one. All six runners scored -- Terry Francona used four pitchers in the 11-batter inning -- and Tampa completed the three-game sweep.

Dice (5-2-1-5-5) had a horrible 1.2 innings, but then settled down nicely, retiring 10 of his last 11 batters. Going back to the end of the first inning, he retired 13 of his last 16 batters. He threw 101 pitches in five innings (24-25-17 14-21).

Dustin Pedroia homered in the first, tripled in the third and doubled in the fifth. He needed only a single for Boston's first cycle since John Valentin (June 6, 1996), but he flew out to center in the sixth and doubled in the eighth.

Boston dropped to 3.5 GB. They move on to New York, where the Yankees routed Texas tonight, 18-7.

I just feel like its pre-04 again right now. Like all good things are coming to an end and we will lose games we should win. That is the gut feeling I have now. Please let me be wrong. Anyway I will watch with eager anticipation.

I assume the rest of the season will be fun and heart stopping. I just want that guaranteed feeling that I had last year.

For Allan the obscure stat finder:How many games were robbed from Beckett last year? I want to compare Dice's season this year with Beckett's last year. He should have won last night. Also, why can't Andrew Dice Zaka not pitch strikes? He obviously has superb control but why not pitch over the plate and let the Fuck Yeah Defense catch your hits? Well so long as they are hit anywhere but at short.

And how many times were people (maybe not you) pissing and moaning here last year with L posting over and over (and over) to calm the fuck down because we were not in danger. Way more people than I would expect were convinced the Red Sox would tank last September.

For Allan the obscure stat finder:How many games were robbed from Beckett last year?

Depends how you define "robbed".

Without looking at anything, I would not say Beckett was robbed of wins last year. And so far, Dice has been crazy lucky.

There are sites that track "tough" and "easy" wins and saves, but I forget where.

But who cares about the won/loss record? A guy who allows 10 runs in 5 innings can win while a guy who allows 1 run in 9 innings can lose.

It's silly and unfair to say that Manny doesn't care, just as it was wrong to say Drew didn't care last season because he doesn't go ape when he K's like FY or Youk. It is more accurate to say that Manny doesn't distinguish between games or situations---he isn't a clutch hitter or a choker, he just does what he does, trying his best, but not getting anxious about it. Sometimes he's hot in a big series (he was great while the Sox were going 0-5 to the Yankees in that 2006 massacre), and sometimes he's not.

Well, that's more of a plus than a minus. That's called being a professional. Good for him.